ROWE

ROWE Program at Best Buy



ROWE Program at Best Buy

Describe the culture of Best Buy.

The culture at Best Buy was like the culture at many other organizations in the UK. The employees were overworked and stressed out. The company wanted to do everything faster and cheaper which meant getting more from all the employees than they could possibly do. The work was very demanding in that the employees had to stay back and work long hours. In some instances, the employees worked as hard as 3 days in a single row to deliver a report. The employees were working much more than the normal capacity and ending up in the hospital (Slocum, 2009).

Their productivity was being affected. Long hours and compromises were a routine. The human resource department at Best Buy realized that there was a need for the organizational culture to change. This need stemmed from the alarming trend in the way the female workforce was working. They were ok with accepting lower pay but they did not want to work so many hours at the company that they will have to compromise their family life and other social commitments.

Discuss the approach to organizational change that the ROWE program illustrates.

To resolve the issues occurring as the result of overworked and stressed employees, the human resource department at Best Buy decided to bring about a necessary change in the organizations. Many companies in the US faced with similar problems launched programs by the name of Work-Life Balance. The purpose of these programs, as the names suggests, was to help employees maintain a balance between work and life. Best Buy, unlike the other companies, launched a new program ROWE, that is, Result Only Work Environment Program. This program was a new dimension to the way work was done at Best Buy (Slocum, 2009).

Under the Result Only Work Environment Program, the sole purpose of any employee was to get the assigned work done. The only consideration was to do quality work within appropriate time. How an employee did it and when was not a matter of concern as long as the work was being done. The program had thirteen basic rules and principles that had to be adhered to by each employee who wanted to work under the ROWE program. The program was first launched at the Best Buy head quarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The head quarters has ...